politics, activism, art, philosophy

Month: September 2015

“Fascist and other far right movements do not herald the rebirth of old pagan values. They are Christian and capitalist to the core.”

Two commenters responded to me. The latter commenter is a close friend and she made a good response:

“I don’t quite think that in regards to National Socialism/ Facism and it’s rise to power in Germany. Germany for many centuries prior had to mould Christianity to fit their “volkish ideology” which is very pagan and based on Nordic myth. They actually blamed Judaism for furthering industrialism and the process of modernization (which includes capitalism), thus breaking their natural ties to Nature/ the environment. I can’t speak for other fascist movements but I don’t think there’s a correlation between Facism in 20th century Germany to Christanity / Capitalism.”

I then wrote to her my response to her response, the gist of this post.

“I’d say that the paganism is only in the surface. My comment is meant to counter fascists I’ve seen who think fascism will return us to old pagan values. It won’t. All the fascists and fascist movements I’ve seen reflect A LOT of Christian and capitalist values.

For instance, their take on social issues is very similar to that of modern Christian fundamentalism. For instance, they think humanity is fundamentally ugly and wicked (“decadent”/”degenerate”) and needs to corrected and punished. They hark back to an idealized Greece and Rome to judge humanity the same way extreme Christians think humans are full of sin compared to God.

Their views on sex tend to be a lot like a fundamentalist Christians’ views. They find sex to be inherently dirty and degrading, and that it should be used firstly for reproducing. They see sex for its sake as somehow deviant and suspicious. They also see sexual relationships that don’t conform to the whole man-master-top over women-children-bottom as decadent. Once again, very fundamentalist way of viewing things.

Likewise, they see women as inherently corrosive and evil in some way and see all or most forms of femininity (associated with women) as decadent and degrading. They especially loathe women’s rights because they see it as “feminizing” and degrading society. They even extend this to racist and homophobic ideals, seeing “lower” races and “deviant” sexualities as “feminine” in some way. This is very similar to Paul of Tarsus who, with his hateful rhetoric, made up the whole idea of women being the cause of original sin and that the earthly world is evil and sinful.

Also, fascists tend to be very racist, placing whites or Asians on top while black and brown people are at bottom. They may talk about some Aryan Indo-European ancestry, but at bottom it’s the same racist ideology that began with colonialism. At heart they think white men are supreme beings who must rule over the earth and over other races. This is a very modern, capitalist, colonialist way of thinking.

I’m no expert on ancient pagan civilizations and I may be very wrong about everything I’ll say right now. It seems that ancient western pagans (specifically Egyptians, Greeks, and Western Europeans)* seem to have seen nature as something terrible, awe-inspiring, and a constant reminder of their mortality. Their relationship to nature seems to have been reciprocal and something to cope with. They didn’t view nature as something to be endlessly dominated and exploited. Modern fascism (like in Germany and Italy in the 20th century) was extremely industrial and had the same conceit as American capitalism: the whole idea of rebuilding the world in their image. That image was a bourgeoisie image, like in America.

*There is no singular “old Pagan values”. I use specific civilizations.

Pagans also had a different image of the sexes. Yes, men were seen as superior and subordinated women, but the core idea is that men and women were complimentary halves to a whole, each their unique abilities and responsibilities. A balanced masculinity and femininity made the universe whole. But modern fascists eye femininity with the same suspicion and disgust as fundamentalist Christians do. They see the world as corrupted by femininity. They have the same desire to “purify” the human race of femininity and dominate over femininity.

Nazi Germany outperformed America in profits in the mid 20th century. This was because they did capitalism better than capitalist countries in America and Europe did. It’s also worth mentioning that great capitalist moguls at the time like Henry Ford admired Nazi Germany. They saw in fascism the restoring of traditional values to oppose communism and the gaining rights of disenfranchised people.”

People have tried to explain the cause of diseases so as to cure and prevent them from the very beginning of human history. Some explanations were pretty superstitious and absurd, such as demonic possession or the wrath of a god. Other explanations, such as miasma theory, were plausible and were accepted for a long time before modern discoveries of microbes made them obsolete. Miasma theory was the prevailing belief that bad airs, noxious odors, ulcers, and “foul” animals, especially those connected with decaying matter, caused disease.[1] Though we moderns may find miasma theory primitive or ridiculous keep in mind that it made sense to people without microscopes, who drew the connection between decay and poor hygiene to disease.

Europeans accepted miasma theory since antiquity. The Greek physician Hippocrates believed that bad air caused pestilence, even calling bad air a pestilence itself.[2] The Roman architect Vitruvius held similar beliefs, which were expanded upon since Hippocrates by future physicians such as Galen. He wrote in his book On Architecture that neighborhoods in marshy places should be avoided as their mists fogs, fused with the breaths of swamp animals, will spread throughout the city, causing disease. He suggested the best places to erect city walls would be on high ground to avoid fogs and rains as long as the temperature was not extremely hot or cold.[3]

Miasma theory held well into the Middle Ages and was even popular in Asia. Medieval writers often corrupted or putrefied air as the cause of disease. Spanish physician Jacme d’Agramont in his “plague tract”, or pamphlet to educate the general public about diseases states that most diseases came from “corrupt air” and elaborates on various types of air and the different ways they become corrupted.[4] He advises his readers to use fragrances and incense to negate the foul air and take away its stench.[5] Like his Greek and Roman predecessors, d’Agramont blamed swamps, marshes, and southern winds for bad air causing disease.[6]

Interestingly, ancient China had similar explanations for disease. They believed disease was caused by poisonous gasses coming from parts of Southern China, specifically by the humid, dead air from the Southern Chinese Mountains.[7] Fear of Southern Chinese marshes deeply influenced Chinese society and history. The Chinese government often banished criminals and other exiles there.[8] Fewer Chinese people immigrated to the south because of their fear, which halted the development of Southern China. Thus, dynasties resided in Northern China for much of early China’s history.[9]

Miasma theory remained popular in Europe late into the 19th century. Though miasma theory was eventually proven false it spurred city reformers, who saw the connection between poor sanitation in city slums and disease, to clean up the city and improve city infrastructure. For example, reformers improved the city’s sewers by building separate drainage systems for houses, separating waste from the rest of the water supply. The reform prevented noxious gases leaking into homes, decreasing episodes of cholera, which led credence to miasma theory.[10]

Politicians, public servants, and reformers, especially those from New York City and Paris, made great efforts to change their cities. Through the Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1858 and the Local Government Act of 1858, Parliament licensed investigations of cities’ sanity regulations. Investigators searched into “the causes of infant mortality, the density of population, condition of sewage, sickness of cattle, and the causes of disease and death throughout the kingdom”. Inspectors were given the warrant to enter homes if they suspected a “nuisance” to exist. If inspectors declared a house unsanitary, they evacuated the inhabitants until they cleaned the house up.

If gases escaped into drains or people’s water supply, proprietors were fined £200. If a person who sold or gave food made it dirty, unfit for human use, the inspector would seize it and charge the owner £10 for each defective item. Keep in mind that money in England had a much greater value in the 19th century than in the 21st. Adjusted for inflation the fines for gases were about £19,000 while fines for bad food were about £960 for each item. (That is about $29,491 and $1,490 respectively.) Health Officers, recognizing that density reduced sanitation, recommended 500 cubic feet for each adult and 300 cubic feet for each child. Apartment tenants were fined if they threw water, furniture, foul liquid or waste, out of the window instead of disposing of them properly. Inspectors even had the power to burn people’s clothes that were considered infected by disease.[11]

Eventually, miasma theory was challenged by the emerging germ theory in the late 19th century. The English physician John Snow challenged miasma theory by proposing that a contaminating substance in the water supply, not in the air caused disease, especially regarding the cholera outbreak in London in 1854. He argued that the molecular changes in the materies morbi, the matter with the disease, were similar to those of the molecules of plants and animals. Furthermore, the molecules behaved exactly like animal and plant matter in that it multiplied its own kind. He even argued that the matter went through periods of incubation after being introduced to an animal. The matter would lay dormant to reproduce more of its kind before attacking the animal, beginning the illness.[12]

Snow’s theory was not unprecedented. The Italian anatomist, Fillipo Pacini, discovered the vibrio cholera, the bacterium that caused the London cholera outbreak the same year. Unfortunately, since so many people believed in miasma theory, his discovery was ignored.[13] The English epidemiologist, William Farr, a big supporter of Miasma Theory at the time, rejected Snow’s theory. He reasoned there was not enough evidence to support the idea that microbes contaminated the water supply. He also stated that the people who drank from the contaminated water supply did not suffer from disease in any greater proportion than the people who drank from other supplies. However, in 1866, eight years after Snow’s death, Farr acknowledged miasma theory was wrong by using statistics on London’s death rate.[14]

The French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur and the German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch would also vindicate Snow and Pacini. Between 1860 and 1864 Pasteur examined a woman seriously infected with puerperal fever. He took a culture from the woman’s lochia, discovering it was fetid with microbes. After the woman’s death he conducted on autopsy on her corpse, drawing samples from her body’s veins, cervical mucus, and uterine mucus, identifying in each sample the same organisms as in the lochia.[15]

In 1876 Robert Koch, building on Pasteur’s work on germ theory, proved that the bacterium bacillus anthracis caused anthrax. He extracted the anthrax bacterium from sheep that died from anthrax and injected them in mice, all of which caught anthrax and died. He repeated the process with over twenty generations of mice to confirm his hypothesis. By improving methods of growing and staining bacteria cultures, Koch identified the bacteria that caused tuberculosis and cholera as well.[16] With his discoveries Koch put the death knell on miasma theory once and for all.

d’Agramont, Jacme. 1348. Regimen of Protection Against Epidemics or Pestilence and Mortality. Lerida, Spain. Translated by M. L. Duran-Reynals and C.-E. A. Winslow. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 23 (1949)

Dream Diary may very well become a series since I apparently have disturbing dreams a lot. They tend to happen most often after I go to sleep around 4am, especially if I’m very tired beforehand, like me writing a 30 page paper for grad school. When I have such dreams I tend to drool and sweat intensely. I tend to not have one dream but many dreams. I tend to spend a lot of time on one “subject” or dream before spending a lot of time on another “subject” or dream. There may or may not be a common theme unifying them all together.

In this morning’s case there was. All the dreams seemed to happen in the same places: a very tall building with many floors long, wide staircases, the sea surrounding the building, city streets, and subways underneath the city streets. Basically, my dreams took place in two locations.

Two dreams happened in the tall building. In the first I was with my dad. One of the floors was a community of all Serbian people. I am Serbian myself but I felt alienated, immature, and judged because I never learned to speak Serbian (because of my dad) and I never really identified with Serbian people too much. The floor of Serbian people was a buffet with trays of Serbian food everywhere.

The main action of the dream happened in a top floor. I was with my dad and a Serbian woman who was supposedly a math teacher. In waking life I am perfectly capable of multiplying large numbers but I completely struggled in the dream. My dad criticized me harshly and demeaned me for my inability, and I was yelling and crying because of this. The yelling and crying was less because of something he actually said but from anticipating what he might say. In waking my life my dad was abusive towards my mother, my older sister, and I so anticipating more horrible behavior from him is not ludicrous. The female teacher was kinder to me, and accepted my excuse that today I just forgot how to do math.

I switched to another dream. The dream took place in the same tower, but it was heavily themed around Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show that I’ve known for the last seven years. In the dream I was Shinji and my first companion was Kuwarou. I don’t know what I did with Kurawou but it may have had something to do with sending a red Unit into the sea. Kurawou left and I had a new companion, Asuka. These were more memorable since Asuka and I constantly caused mischief. We would go purposefully provoke the demons in the building and run away from them. It was fun and frightening at the same time. The demons were, strangely enough, Rez and Bowser. Strange.

I barely remember the third and fourth dreams. I changed location, to the city streets and subways beneath. In the third dream I went inside a house and furiously destroyed one of the newer game consoles. (I am generally dissatisfied with where video games have gone in the last ten years. I prefer the older games, especially Nintendo games.) The rest of this dream I tried to cover up my act. I felt like someone would be very mad at me for what I did. In the last dream I tried to meet a high school friend of mine and later tried to leave my situation by taking the subway. Both quests went unresolved.

I observed and contemplated the Pleiades late one night. All the events that came before were from other dreams, other worlds, other unresolved forces. Those daemons were cast out. New daemons invaded. Everyone was rudely awakened.

I saw a pillar of fire and magma. I assumed it was just a volcano erupting until another volcano erupted and another one. I realized that the fiery explosions that left molten craters on the ground were not chunks of volcanic rock but in fact bombs. I ran back from the garden to my mansion and fled from there.

Elsewhere I immediately became a soldier defending the country from the fearful invasion. I was in a combat plane in a desert. Bombs exploded everywhere and bullets rained down from one side of the desert. I flew back to base, which looked like a castle, to should “WE’RE BEING INVADED!” or something similar. Bullets punctured holes in my plane, then my body, then through my head, but miraculously I managed to still live until finally the plane collapsed and I died.

I was a disembodied third person for the rest of the dream, witnessing the devastating effects of the invasion. The invaders were an army from Mexico, or so I divined it, but they all were white and spoke in American accents. (In retrospect, they may have been from the Texas/Mexico area.) They established a military regime that was extremely brutal and anti-intellectual.

They would regularly punish people by sicking guard dogs on them and other cruelties. I heard one guard tell a recent tale with both mockery and cruelty: A little girl protested about there being no books. The guard threatened her about what would happen to someone who said such things while her family fearfully told her to be quiet. The girl challenged the guard to bring it on and the guard obliged, killing or brutally maiming the entire family.

Many other such cruelties happened but I can barely remember any of them. The entire landscape changed with the invasion. In my dreams beforehand water was everywhere: in a harbor, in an ocean, and later in a Beverly Hills garden. But with the invasion everything changed. All these watery worlds were gone, replaced by a scalding hot desert.

One military officer fled the initial invasion, vowing to bring reinforcements to take back the coup. The officer, Maya, was a woman of her word. She brought back a guerilla army of her own. The last scene was of Maya’s guerilla force charging in the desert to attack people’s homes that were occupied by the army. As the war unfolded, disembodied music was everywhere but it was speaking from a place inside me…

Mathias, Maximus, and Mina, the top duelists who call themselves Team Buffalo Chicken, analyze the field. The duel still rages strong among our competitors. Stella and Willow have gained a big advantage while Yukio and Sophia are still recoiling from the attack.

Maximus is way too used to being a duel commentator, jabbering even when there is no large audience. “Things don’t look good for Baby Blast Furnace, both in moral and advantage. If they’re going to get control of the game again they need a real pep talk right now. They need to steel their nerves and get ready for the long fight ahead. Can they keep their concentration and endurance up to keep running to the light at the end of the tunnel? Can they win this marathon?”

Mathias, a firm believer in human strength and courage, replies, “The situation isn‘t ideal but not irreversible. It’s still anybody’s game.” He stretches an open hand to Maya, eager to clasp something from her. “Can I have some baklava? I didn’t eat all day and I’m STARVING!”

Maya licks her fingers, savoring the sweet taste and the fact that it’s all hers and hers alone even more so. “No.” Her nonchalant reply hides her worrying. She trains her sharp eyes on the psychological reality of the match, especially on Sophia.

Yukio runs to comfort Sophia, who is so despondent she is dead still. Yukio shakes her. She has to get up and keep dueling! Sophia shakes her head over and over again. “I can’t anymore. There’s nothing I can do. I’m too weak to do anything.”

Boiled to indignation, Yukio stands up and roars to Stella and Willow across the field. “How dare you pick on a less experienced duelist, especially one who uses a deck more original than yours! And you call yourselves rogue duelists! You shame every great, creative, and independent duelist out there!”

Stella doesn’t seem to care while Willow seethes resentfully from the rebuke.

Maya decides it’s enough. She approaches to and kneels by Sophia herself, offering her bottled water and the last pieces of baklava. Sophia thanks her and fills herself, gradually becoming more animated. Maya declares to everyone imperiously, “Sophia is far from the weakest link. She’s in fact the strongest duelist of us all, stronger than Stella and Willow, stronger than Yukio and me, stronger than Maximus.”

She says to Willow, “In fact, you’re the weakest link and you need to be smacked for using Blackwings. All Blackwings should die in a fire alongside all Nekroz and Qliphorts.” She says to Stella, “Nothing wrong with being competitive, even envious, but Sophia will beat you and show why she’s a better duelist.”

“How could you let such dirty tricks slide?” Yukio challenges Maya with indignation, Maya responds, “Punching below the belt happens all the time in competitive play. Even friends do it to each other.” She kneels next to Sophia, telling her. “Pro dueling is full of unsavory people. You have to learn how to cope with them. When you do, you will realize that subverting and overcoming them does much more than self-righteous indignation ever will.”

Yukio wants to object but he gives up. Sophia nods, taking Maya’s words to heart, and gets up. “Stella, Willow, I will beat you both. You may not have been able to use a great Fortune Lady deck but I do.”

Stella accepts Sophia’s challenge. “Bring it! Show me what you got.”

“More like ‘show us what we got.’” Yukio adds. “We’re a team, Sophia, and we must have confidence in each other. Only teamwork between us will beat them.” He gives Sophia a thumbs up, and she reciprocates.

Maximus provides further commentary to his imagined stadium audience. “We just saw Maya and Yukio coach Sophia – she’s a little green, a new player – and we’re back into the game. This is how great teamwork works outside the duel now let’s see how they take great teamwork inside the duel.”

“Maximus,” Mathias reminds his comrade gently, in a low and soft voice, before suddenly shouting comically. “SHUT UP AND LET THEM PLAY THE DAMN GAME!”

Team Stella: 13100 || Team Baby Blast Furnace: 8400

YUKIO’S TURN: “I summon Heroic Challenger – Double Lance, and use its effect to revive a Double Lance in my Graveyard.” A warrior in white armor, a white knight of sorts, arrives to battle, as does its twin. “You made a big mistake not banishing my Double Lance, Stella. You were too scared of my Extra Sword and Inferno Reckless Summon combo. I overlay both Double Lances to Xyz Summon Number 39: Utopia!’ The white knights disappear, replaced by a new warrior, armored in high-tech white armor, wielding a broad sword. “I overlay Utopia to Xyz Summon Number S39: Utopia One.” The warrior from the future collapses into an atom orbiting a new warrior, completely in white and shining with blinding intensity. “I discard a Rank-Up Spell from my hand and overlay Utopia One to Xyz Summon Number S0: Hope Zexal!” Utopia One vanishes and a new warrior with long, flaming red hair leaps from the black hole, brilliant with power, surrounded by four orbiting atoms.

SOPHIA’S TURN: “Let’s go! I activate Fortune’s Future, returning Lady Aeter to my Graveyard to draw 2 cards.” All right! She drew the 2 cards she needed! She play tested her new cards a few times but never used them in a serious duel. Here is the real test, for her deck and for her character. “I activate Fortune Lady Pendulum Nova and Fortune Lady Pendulum Destiny in my Pendulum Zones.” Two monster illuminate themselves high in the air on the far right and left sides of Sophia’s field, one a spunky woman with pink hair and sci-fi blaster guns, the other a sorceress with three faces, one of a young girl, the other a middle-aged woman, the last a crone.

A beat of sweat drops down Stella’s cheek and it isn’t because of the Egyptian heat. In fact she feels downright cold. She and Willow are losing control fast! Sophia, unsatisfied so far, still has a lot more to do. “Lady Aeter, shatter Baxia!” Aeter burns the dragon Baxia to ashes with her wand of light. “I activate Lady Aeter, banishing her to summon Fortune Lady Dark and another Fortune Lady Fire.” The fiery Fortune Lady appears again, but with different company, a Fortune Lady draped in long black robes. “Fire’s effect activates, destroying Trishula and taking 2700 Life Points.”

“I Special Summon Chiwen from my Graveyard with it’s effect.” Stella manages to grapple her defenses in time, but it amounts to little. Lady Fire obliterates the ice dragon Trishula and scatters its ashes at Stella and Willow’s faces. (Team Stella LP 13200 à 10500)

Yukio pumps his fist in the air so hard as if he could hit a cloud with it. “YOOHOO! YOU GET HER SOPHIA!”

“Guess she’s not the weakest link, huh!” Maya hollers from the sidelines.

Still not finished, Sophia concludes, “I overlay both Lady Fires to Xyz Summon Gachi Gachi Gantetsu.” The fiery Fortune Ladies collapse into a black hole to form a crouching, muscular sumo wrestler. “I Special Summon Fortune Lady Mist from my hand, and tune her with Lady Wind to Synchro Summon Herald of Rainbow Light.” Lady Mist aligns with Lady Wind and spherical angel with wings emerges from the white light that ensued. Sophia gasps in relief. “Whew! That was one long turn!”

STELLA’S TURN: Just after Stella draws her card, Yukio shouts. “Don’t get any ideas.” I detach a Material to activate Zexal’s effect!” One of Zexal’s orbiting atoms disappears, and Zexal sends a wave of light from its sword crashing down on Stella and Willow’s field. “You can’t activate any cards this turn.”

Stella’s eyes look dead, the fiery light she had just a turn before gone out. “I set a card face down. Turn over.”

WILLOW’S TURN: The sullen Willow ponders her situation while nursing her grievances from Yukio and Maya’s rebukes. She’ll show them who is the real weakest link is! But what could she do? She drew Mirror Force but Sophia’s Herald is a major problem. “Stella, I have a plan for a comeback. I trust you to know what to do when the time is right. Act first before I do. Let’s work as a team too. I set a card facedown.”

Stella gives Willow a thumbs up.

“Both teams are showing teamwork and support.” Maximus commentates again. “It’s a very endearing and empowering thing to see. It is something this game sorely needs more.”

The Fortune Ladies swarm at Willow again, but she is ready this them. Now it is Willow’s turn to trap them. “I activate Mirror Force!” Their attacks hit a barrier that looks like a mirror without frame, which ricochets all their attacks right back at them. Sophia’s confidence almost deflates. They were so close! But now is not the time to give up. “I set a card face down.”

STELLA’S TURN: “I activate Yang Zing Path. I return Pulao, Jiaotu, and Taotie to my Deck and draw 2. I activate Soul Charge to bring back Baxia and Trishual.” Stella winces as her chest lights up and her two monsters break out to come back to the field. (Team Stella LP 2100 à 100) “I summon another Chiwen, Light of the Yang Zing.” A small yellow dragon flies to the stage. “I overlay Chiwen and Baxia to Synchro Summon Chaofeng, Phantom of the Yang Zing.” Chiwen becomes a single green ring while Baxia becomes eight stars. They align and from their energy of white light form a huge, snake-like dragon with emerald scales and a bird’s beak.

WILLOW’S TURN: “I activate Silver Lining. I return two Blackwings to my hand but I can only summon Blackwing monsters this turn. I summon my old Bora and Gale the Whirlwind. I overlay both to Synchro Summon Blackwing Tamer – Obsidian Hawk Joe.” Four stars align with three green rings to bring forth an Indian man adorned in a flamboyant red-feathered headdress. “And I use its effect to bring back Nothung.” Hawk Joe chants and dances to an ancient, natural-sounding tune. The black-winged birdman wielding its large black sword springs up from the ground, or rather some place far below the ground.

SOPHIA’S TURN: “I activate Instant Fusion, paying 1000 Life Points to summon any Level 4 or lower Fusion Monster. I call forth Elder God Noden!” A sealed can opens. The compressed gases within it escape and crystalize into Nordic god with a blue armor and a trident. . (Team Baby Blast Furnace LP 5800 à 4800) “With Noden’s effect, I revive Herald from my Graveyard.” Noden strikes the ground with his trident as if it were a tuning fork, sounding out the ground beneath. The underworld answers, brining Herald back to the plane of the living. “I overlay them to Xyz Summon Outer God Nyaria!”

“What!” Stella shouts in disbelief. She’s not the only one shocked. Maya’s and Yukio’s eyes widen, Mina’s jaw drops, and Maximus leans over in wraps interest. On Sophia’s field both Elder God and Herald merge into the void. What crawls out is so strange as to be terrifying. What shape is it even? It looks like a convoluted mass of tentacles with innumerable mouths all over its body.

“I then overlay Nyaria itself to Xyz Summon Outer God Azathoth!” The utterly disturbing, completely unclassifiable thing collapses into a worm hole itself, giving the space needed for an even odder thing to emerge. This new god of the netherworld doesn’t even resemble a writhing ball of tentacles. It is some murky, morphing thing suspended in the air above everyone. “I detach a Material to use its effect. I destroy all cards in Stella and Willow’s field!” Something comes from the dark mass above, briefly morphing into two large claws and a glowing red eye. The eye shines bright with a fiendish, uncanny brilliance. The whole field before Stella and Willow burns as if on the surface of the sun, their monsters collapsing under extreme gravity and heat.

“For the final attack, Azathoth, attack them directly!’ The outer god creates more hands out of its lack of a body, each forming a ball of black flames. All of its hands shoot at Stella and Willow. They shield themselves from the consuming maelstrom, but the game is over.

Team Stella: 0 || Team Baby Blast Furnace: 4800

Maximus clapped his hands together, jumping up and down in excitement. “Nice dueling! That was an amazing game! I say that to all of you!”

Mathias heartily slapped Yukio and Sophia on the bag with such force it scared them a bit. “You both dueled with courage and teamwork. You didn’t give up until the end. That is how you found your way to turn the situation around.”

Stella, completely beaten for now, tentatively extended her hand to her opponents. “Hope there are no hard feelings. Good game.”

Yukio took her hand firmly. “None taken.” He gestured Sophia to shake Stella’s hand but Sophia hesitated. “Come on, don’t be shy.” Yukio insisted. “You just won for us a huge match.” Sophia clasped Stella’s hand and said good game. Stella was surprised how strong Sophia’s grip was, coming from such a narrow palm and boney fingers.

Stella gave Yukio and Sophia two Item Cards, a Millennium Rod and Millennium Scales, for all of their troubles. Stella was about to make good on her promise to help them climb the Great Pyramid but Mathias, Maximus, and Mina had enough. They were all fired up and ready to duel!

The final deck in my litter for today is a Final Attack Orders deck. It’s a very aggressive deck that focuses on beating the opponent down with beatsticks of 2000 ATK and higher while immobilizing my opponent with Final Attack Orders and Skill Drain. For me it is one of the more fun decks to play because it disrupts my opponent’s plays and it feels really exhilarating to play such strong monsters.

Both cards, Final Attack Orders and Skill Drain, prevent my Goblin Attack Force and Goblin Elite Attack Force monsters from falling into defense mode. Final Attack Orders punishes my opponent’s for defending with weak monsters by forcing all face up monsters into attack mode. But Skill Drain is by far the deal breaker with this deck. Most decks are so reliant on effect monsters that Skill Drain shuts down a good portion of their strategy. However, be careful. This is YGO 2006, not YGO 2016. People back then relied a lot more on Spells to carry themselves through.

Other than 2000 and over ATK beaters, my other monsters are decent tech-ins that are still aggressive. Breaker can destroy a Spells and Traps and Kycoo banishes monsters from my opponent’s Graveyard so he can’t use them anymore. Cyber Dragon gives a bit of extra field advantage. This is fine on its own by also added The Light – Hex Sealed Fusion so I can play Cyber Twin Dragon and Cyber End Dragon. By teching in Cyber Dragon cards I can summon really strong monsters and I’m not only limited to LV4 beatsticks.

The Spells are really basic. I may take out a Metamorphosis for an extra Bottomless Trap Hole or Smashing Ground. I do have Enemy Controller and Snatch Steal but I don’t have my own monsters to use other than Cyber Dragon. Other than Final Attack orders and Skill Drain by Traps are basic also. Solemn Judgment is an awesome generic card for this format since I can use it to negate practically anything.

As for my Fusion Monster toolbox: I have Ultimate Dragon, Five God Dragon, and Cyber End Dragon among others to make huge beatsticks. Cyber Twin Dragon and Gatling Dragon have very strong effects that can clear out your opponent’s monsters. Dark Balter, Ryu Senshi, and Dark Blade are strong control monsters that negate your opponent’s Spells, Traps, and banish your opponent’s dead monsters respectively. And there’s Thousand-Eyes Restrict.

Arguably my Undead Lock deck is the most effective Deck I created for the Yugioh World Championship 2006 game. It’s a mill deck that relies on Inferno Reckless Summon to get out 3 Bone Towers. Then I Special Summon zombies by suiciding Pyramid Turtles in battle many times and reviving them with Book of Life or Call of the Haunted. With this combo I can force my opponent to toss away up to 30 cards maximum from their Deck. Many duels are far from this ideal but the deck still functions well.

The rest of my monster lineup are staple mill cards Morphing Jar, Morphing Jar #2, and Needle Worm. Morphing Jar #2 is particularly strong since it can burn through the spells and traps in my opponent’s deck and can reuse flip effect monsters like Morphing Jar and Needle Worm. Spirit Reaper is both a great defensive card and fits with the Zombie theme of the deck.

I use only 2 Book of Life because they can be too situational sometimes and I have too many other reviving cards also like Premature Burial and Shallow Grave. Shallow Grave in particular lets me resurrect flip effect monsters in such a way I can use their effects again. Sadly Yugioh World Championship 2006 has a glitch where I can only use Inferno Reckless Summon if I set it facedown and then revive a monster from my Graveyard. That is annoying, as I would duel much better in the game if the glitch didn’t exist.

My traps exist to stall my opponent and block them from destroying my defenses. Gravity Bind interferes a bit with my Pyramid Turtle + Bone Tower combo but it is a great defense anyway. Solemn Judgment is a great staple card that can stop any card my opponent plays that could break through my defensive wall.

I don’t know if this is my favorite deck but it is definitely the deck with the most finesse put into it. It’s basically an antimeta Horus deck of sorts that focuses on locking away your opponent’s spells and traps while having a lot of good tech-ins. That way the deck is versatile and gives you many options. In that sense it has “depth”, which is what I try to put into a lot of my decks.

The key cards are Horus LV6 and LV8 because they can shut down your opponent’s spell cards. Jinzo shuts down traps and is a great Level 6 monster overall. I added Kycoo and Doomcalibur Knight* so I can banish opponent’s monsters in their Graveyard and negate opponent’s effect monsters. Both function to disrupt your opponent in an unconventional way. Gravekeeper’s Spy is a solid 2000 DEF monster that can bring out more of itself. The rest are generic staple cards and my warrior toolbox of D.D. Assailant, D.D. Warrior Lady, and Exiled Force.

The spells in this deck are almost all staples. The highlight of here is Metamorphosis so I can bring out Fusion Monsters. Back in the day most people only put in Thousand-Eyes Restrict. As someone blogging in 2015 I have the knowledge of today’s metagame, so I included an entire toolbox of 15 Fusion Monsters. Enemy Controller and Snatch Steal allow me to take my opponent’s monster, which could potentially be any Level, which allows me a wide option of Fusion Monsters.

My traps are typical staples too other than Royal Decree, which creates a strong lock with Horus LV8. Naturally I added 3 Solemn Judgment so I have other ways of locking my opponent with Horus LV8.

As for my Fusion Monster toolbox: I have Ultimate Dragon, Five God Dragon, and Cyber End Dragon among others to make huge beatsticks. Cyber Twin Dragon and Gatling Dragon have very strong effects that can clear out your opponent’s monsters. Dark Balter, Ryu Senshi, and Dark Blade are strong control monsters that negate your opponent’s Spells, Traps, and banish your opponent’s dead monsters respectively. And there’s Thousand-Eyes Restrict.